I’m interested in common things reconsidered, reorganized, reconciled by raw daylight. Bread, wine, buildings, landscapes, creatures, names, stories. I also like places of intersection… integration… places of overlap… where ideas, essence, and pavement converge in real time and space. Here’s my favorite such convergence:

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us…  (John 1:14).

The trouble of it is… the painting studio can be a scary place to try out such heady impressions of the universe. Bad ideas and strained skills quickly get exposed there, producing something akin to that vulnerable feeling you get in dreams where you wander crowded school cafeterias, clutching a lonely lunch tray, searching in vain for a place to sit down. Somehow, though, the fear and insecurity of the moment give way to an impulse, an instinct, too pesky to be outmatched by trepidation, and you eventually snatch a seat at The Table. An idea takes root. A vision emerges. And there, mingling in the company of interesting strangers who soon become friends… you eat… together. You discover a new story in the husk of the old, as one adventure gives way to the next.

This is my life… and my life in the studio. For no good art, and no good stories, come without risk. -Matt Hebert

My creative process often begins in the workshop. Fabricating my own substrates and then moving them into the painting studio has been an integral part of my artistic journey. I am drawn to both the raw elements of wood and metal as well as the beauty and vibrancy of nature. Observing and delighting in objects like the dandelion, blueberry, milkweed pod or moth is a wonderful place of beginning. The simplification and re-organization of their shapes, patterns, colors and lines leads to the creation of a whimsical and functional piece of art. As once said by poet and artist William Morris, “Have nothing in your houses which you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful”. I endeavor to make work that is both. — Sara Hebert